Five nations had taken the top 5 positions after the dressage and all eyes were on Kitty King to see if she could hang on to her lead ahead of Aoife Clark and Bettina Hoy as the showjumping began in reverse order.
It was an eventful session for Andrew Nicholson when Perfect Stranger’s bridle came off, which led to their retirement. Both Laura Collett, who had an unlucky 2 poles with Pamero 4 and William Fox-Pitt, although having jumped clear with Cool Mountain, decided to save their rides for another day and withdrew before the cross country phase.
An unlucky pole for Aoife Clark riding Fernhill Adventure dropped her down the positions but both Kitty King on Ceylor LAN and Astier Nicolas and Piaf De B’Neville, produced faultless rounds with Gemma Tattersall also jumping a clear much to the delight of Quicklook V’s owner and stakeholder in the new Event Rider Masters series, Christopher Stone.
With Rio at the forefront of the minds of many of the competing combinations plus the kudos of winning this debut event, there was a much larger team presence to the day. Ireland’s Jonty Evans, having secured a PB with Cooleys Rourkes Drift in the dressage produced a lovely clear as did New Zealand’s Jesse Campbell and Amsterdam 21.
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- Jonty Evans
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- Jesse Campbell
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- William Fox-Pitt
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- Aoife Clark
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- Laura Collett
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- Andrew Nicholson
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- William Fox-Pitt
3 star track, 5 star action
As the tension built for the start of the cross country phase around Ian Stark’s bold course, we made our way up to the start/finish line where the new ‘kiss and cry’ podium added a new element to the event. Until Christopher Burton crossed the finish line, Astier Nicolas was the only rider to have made the time at this level at Chatsworth but to the delight of Christopher and the growing crowd, he too joined this exclusive club and was the first to mount the podium.
We were gutted for Sam Watson when he and Horseware Lukeswell had a highly uncharacteristic parting of ways, and Emily King ended up in the water (very gracefully we might add) when Charlemagne misread the corner. Alex Hua Tian, still top of the style stakes, rode a measured round watched eagerly by the visiting Chinese media and there was disappointment for Aoife Clark when she picked up 20 penalties on course. Posting on Facebook last night, Aoife wrote;
“Well not quite the end Fernhill Adventure and I had hoped for in our first Event Rider Masters at Chatsworth with an unfortunate 20 late on cross-country when right up there in contention- our first ever XC penalties together. He got very leg weary and just didn’t turn in time to a corner which although the ground was tacky, is very unlike him. He show-jumped well, but felt a bit flat then too, and his bloods have come back all wrong today. So a pretty brave run from him in deep ground when not feeling well. A week of TLC and hopefully will be back to his brilliant best in no time. On the plus side, he once again did an awesome dressage, jumped well and it was a brilliant launch for the new ERM Series which is the best thing to happen to our sport in a long time!”
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- Alex Hua Tian
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- Clarke Montgomery
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- Izzy Taylor
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- Jonelle Price
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- Jonty Evans
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- Sam Griffiths
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- Sam Watson
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- Paul Tapner earns his spot
Paul Tapner had a cracking round on Yogi Bear and brought some colour to the podium but sadly it was not for long before Thibaut Vallette joined Karim Laghouag and Taperz had to step away. All eyes were then on Flora Harris to see if Great Britain could mix things up. Unfortunately for Flora, she and Bayano along with Tom McEwen didn’t get to cross the finish line. Thankfully everyone remained unscathed and the attention turned to the highest placed Brit at Badminton, Gemma Tattersall riding Quicklook V.
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- Astier Nicolas
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- Gemma Tattersall
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- Flora Harris
Watching Gemma fly round on the big screen we thought for a moment she had made the time, however, as Alice Plunkett rallied everyone to cheer her home, it was announced that Gemma had just missed out on joining Astier and Christopher’s 2-man club. She did, however, have her moment on the podium, but an always smiling Gemma stepped down as Astier galloped home and the positions shuffled again with the French commanding all 3 spots.
The atmosphere was electric as the riders, support teams, owners and spectators turned to see overnight and morning leader, Kitty King and Ceylor LAN leave the start box. The buzz of the finish line and with no other horses left in the warm-up proved all too much for the young Ceylor LAN and he must have wanted to join the party behind him. Sadly for Kitty, her time margin was eaten up before she jumped the first fence and as she was cheered home to wonderful applause the French contingent were already celebrating. Four former European champions headed a stellar line up and the new class produced a thrilling competition with dramatic surges up the leader board as the cross-country time proving hugely influential. Australia’s Chris Burton climbed from twenty second after show jumping, to finish in sixth place.
Podium Party
With an immediate prize-giving there and then, it wasn’t long before Astier Nicolas, Thibaut Vallette and Karim Laghouag were showering each other in champagne and a delighted Astier received his winning cheque for £16,000.
Astier explained;
“It’s amazing to win the first leg of ERM and I am delighted for my horse Piaf De Bneville. His show jumping and cross-country was spot on today. It’s hard to make the time here at Chatsworth so I expected that the winner would need to post a quick cross-country and the final leader board could change dramatically.
“This new competition format means you ride it more like a three day event rather than one day and the crowds getting behind the riders has created a really big atmosphere across all three phases. The big aim for this horse is the Olympics this summer and this weekend’s competition has been an excellent preparation for that”.
This was a hotly anticipated weekend for the sport. The competitors had embraced the dawn of a new era, (described by former double Olympic gold medallist, Sir Mark Todd at ERM’s launch as “the most exciting development in eventing that I’ve ever seen”), in the run up to Saturday and social media was a-flutter with build-up buzz.
Figures released by the organisers showed the live streaming on Saturday reached 10,000 viewers in over 35 countries and their enjoyment continued on Sunday with expert commentary from leading lights in the sport including Sir Mark Todd and Lucinda Green MBE plus Equiratings were on site to provide the crucial statistics that are taking the sport to the next level.
